Spotlight: RedLaw interviews...Richard Khaldi, Maitland Chambers

What a year to choose to move back into law after 14 years! We spoke to Maitland Chambers Director, Richard Khaldi, previously a Litigation lawyer, about his reasons for his return into the industry and what the experiences gained from 'life outside law' allows him to bring to his new role. We also talked about the biggest changes he's seen within the legal industry upon his return and, of course, how the global pandemic has affected the Chambers' operations.

Richard, you began your career as a Litigation lawyer taking the decision to leave law in December 2005. You’re now back in law 14 years later in the role of Chambers Director at Maitland Chambers. Can you take us through your motivators behind your journey out and then your return back into law?

Looking back, the main motivator for leaving the law was that I just wasn’t enjoying practising as a solicitor. I was then lucky to find a role in economic regulation where my legal background was a help, but my day-to-day job was very much non-legal focussing on markets and customer policy. However, working my way up through Government made me realise that it is the challenge of leadership that I really enjoy more than the technical aspects of a role. I’d always had it in the back of my mind that a return to law could be a possibility and taking on the Chambers Director role at Maitland has effectively brought me full circle. I used to instruct Maitland when I practised and worked with several of the current members, including our Head of Chambers. My legal background helps me understand the context in which Chambers operates, but I’m there to provide leadership and strategic direction such that our members can focus on their practices and delivering for clients.

What a time for your first year back in law, facing a global pandemic! How has the pandemic and lockdown affected your role and the operations of the Chambers? What have been the main challenges you’ve had to overcome and how has the Chambers adapted to meet the need of your clients during these challenging times?

Like everyone, the most immediate challenge was ensuring our IT capabilities were such that we could function effectively with all of our members and staff working from home. In that respect we made some very quick and key decisions – upgrading key hardware where necessary and deciding which software would work best for working remotely. Although there have been challenges, being flexible in our approach and our Management Committee supporting the decisions I and the other staff have made, has allowed us to turn potential challenges into opportunities. The longer term challenges of the pandemic are still playing out. We’re making further investments in IT and comms to ensure that Chambers is able to meet the expectations of clients. But like many Chambers, we’re also considering the impact on our physical surroundings in terms of accommodation and the balance between homeworking and coming to the office.

In your view, what have been the most positive and the most negative changes law has seen in the time you have been away and what has this meant for this industry?

I think that like many professions that were once seen as being a ‘safe bet’ when choosing a career – law, medicine, engineering, finance – the changing pace of technology has been both a positive and a negative for the legal industry. Communications with clients, document review and production and legal research have all changed hugely for the better. However, technological advances have also brought the challenges of automation and AI, clients rightly expecting more for their fees and law finding itself in a much more competitive environment for the brightest and best employees. It’s that last point which I think is key to how law can respond positively to these changes. Any professional services organisation is only as good as the people working within it. Everyone in the law – from the bottom to the top of an organisation – therefore needs to be comfortable with technology and open and adaptable to the changes it brings. Finding those people is the key to unlocking the opportunities that technology brings and ensuring our industry delivers for the future.

In what ways have the corporate experiences gained from your ‘life outside of law’ contributed to the skills and knowledge you have been able to bring to Chambers?

I think first and foremost it’s an appreciation that the quality of your team has a direct impact on the performance of your organisation. That sounds simple and obvious, but picking the right people is not easy. Technical competence is a given for any role, but finding colleagues that can work with others, take on responsibility and be ambassadors for your organisation in everything they do is the goal for any organisation. Recruiting well is a skill that everyone can learn, but leaders must proactively decide to expand their skillset, rather than assume they will pick it up as they go along. Sitting alongside recruitment is the need for leaders to take an interest in everything, rather than just focussing on what it is that got you to the top. As a leader you can’t be an expert on everything your organisation does, but you can educate yourself enough to ask the difficult questions and challenge your team to deliver their best. I take an interest in developments across the business world, but I find the quickest way to learn is to ask my team to teach me; a question that starts with a ‘why’ is always a great start!

Talk us briefly through the main roles and responsibilities of a Chambers Director.

As a simple generalisation, the Chambers Director is responsible for everything that is non-legal within a barristers’ Chambers. He/she will head up the Chambers’ staff team and manage day-to-day issues including finance, IT, comms, logistics, accommodation, compliance and marketing. The role also has a strategic element in terms of managing Chambers’ key risks and supporting members in exploiting commercial opportunities in the future. For some Chambers the Director will manage the clerking team, but at Maitland I work closely with our Senior Clerk to ensure that Chambers is best placed to support members’ practices both now and in the future.

You’ve been in the role for almost a year. Why did Maitland Chambers get you vote? What sets it apart from your competitors?

I’ve come to realise that being able to make an impact in a role is dependent on the attitudes of the people you will be working with day-to-day, and the willingness of the organisation to embrace change. I already knew several senior members at Maitland having worked with them when in practice; this made it easier when considering whether Maitland and I would gel in terms of personalities and culture. As for the willingness to change, during my interviews there was a continuing theme of Chambers needing to adapt to the way that the legal market, both at the Bar and elsewhere, is evolving.

If you had to pick one thing, experience or book you've read that's changed or helped shape the course of your life, what would it be?

I was very fortunate to be offered the chance to study for an MBA with the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Business school opened my eyes to a global view of the economic world and to many, many more ideas of what success can look like. Going to business school in the US also exposed me to their business culture which is much more open and accepting of opportunity than here in the UK, while at the same time being incredibly focussed and, at times, altogether more ruthless. Lessons I learned included their lack of a fear of failure – there is less stigma attached to it and a more entrepreneurial spirit generally – meaning that businesses in the US tend to have a different view of risk. Likewise, there is less reliance placed on where you came from as an arbiter of what you offer now – I met some amazing people whose backgrounds were very different to those you would encounter in the UK.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Nobody really cares about how much you do or don’t know at any given moment. They care about whether they can trust you. That and buy some shares in Tesla.